Prophet Yūsuf: Part 1 — The Well, the House and the Prison
Section 3 of 31 · Lives of the Prophets
Our Father Is in Plain Error
إِذْ قَالُوا۟ لَيُوسُفُ وَأَخُوهُ أَحَبُّ إِلَىٰٓ أَبِينَا مِنَّا وَنَحْنُ عُصْبَةٌ إِنَّ أَبَانَا لَفِى ضَلَـٰلٍ مُّبِينٍ
“(It happened) when they said, “Yūsuf and his brother are dearer to our father than we are, while we are a whole group. Surely, our father is in clear error.” (12:8)
They said: our father is in plain error. Why? Because he loves Yūsuf more than us. We are the men; we are the elders; we are the strongest; we are a group. We are the ones who will help our father in his moments of need. How can he love this Yūsuf and his brother, who are young and on their own?
In those times, what protected you was your family. There were no laws, no law enforcement and no police to look after security. You protected yourself through your family, and that is why people were proud whenever they had many family members: the bigger your family, the stronger you were. So they said: we are the men, the strong ones — how can our father love Yūsuf more than us?
And then they accused their father of being in error, of being misguided. That is not the right thing to say about your father — that he is misguided — and they knew that their father was a prophet of Allah (swt). This came from jealousy.